David Blaine again!

[trux]

It looks like the last flop was not discouraging David Blaine from breath-holding, and he is going to put up another apnea stunt again. He wants to break the world record (not sure if it will be with chains or without). This time he at least admits it will be with oxygen (the last time, in the glass bubble, it was of course too, just he did not publicly admit it).

The details in the NY Times blog are rather spare for the moment, and the pre-announced news release is not yet available on Blaine's website:

Breath-Holding for Dummies - TierneyLab - Science - New York Times Blog

BTW, is it true that PFI teaches hyperventilation to newbies for increasing their breath-holds? At least it is what the breath-up looks like in the description. Although it is called "purging CO2" there, it is still the same. That sounds little bit surprising to me.

[spaghetti]

..."David Blaine is an American illusionist, stunt performer and...".
David Blaine - Dickipedia - A Wiki of Dicks

[hteas]

Could someone just put him out of his misery before he gives us another black eye? The average non-diver still seems to link Blaine to freediving as much as to SCUBA. : ((

Trux, two new divers here have had Performance classes recently, and both were taught to do 15 hyperventilations before doing their static. It's beyond me!

Howard

[tbgsub]

blain's static apnea attempts and the current world apnea record is comparing apples and oranges I think,
at some level a record breaking attempt becomes comparing one persons genetic O2 conversion factor with extraordinary low resting heart rate and abnormally large lung capacity versus anothers. [although Jaque Mayol with a smaller lung capacity and older than typical age slightly (ok SHATTERS) disproves this theory] the training to get to performance apnea becomming almost pretty much the same.

If Blaine does a world breaking static apnea it still doesnt make him a Diver, or a freediver, just a static apnea illusionist, or at best a static apnea record holder for the next few months till someone more genetically apt and more tenacious comes along. Pezzilari, and all others please step up. Personally I dont think Blaine will beat the World Record or the US static apnea record.

There is some concern that static apnea among newbies, is thought to be likened to dynamic underwater apnea, which is mentally, and physiologically different on many levels. I can forsee a potential danger with determined static land apneists attempting to match PB's prematurely in water at depth only to discover the compression, clearing eustation tubes, swimming, and focus relaxing add interesting factors to a practical dynamic UW breath hold because of Blaines claims and activities, and the endorsement by Freedive professionals, although I am glad he recieved appropriate training for his stunt, it just shows that even with professional training; his attempt was perhaps over ambitious.

Blaine seems to be an individual with Houdinni ambitions for fame and glory.
while the Apnea world has to deal with practical and physical limitations, or at least manage them through conditioning.

I am not a Bubble Blowing Diver, but something tells me that Oxygen used for apnea is a bad idea, similar to hyperventilating, it fools the internal mechanism that senses High CO2 in the lungs to the point of blackout, as well as potentially getting oxygen poisoning. it seems the human form is quite sensitive to chemical extreems doesnt it? perhaps he will only pass out at his personal best and get on with life and another illusion. And the performance and recreational Freediving world can stand on its own as a great alternative sport to Diving on air and exercising in the ocean, or achieving the previously unthinkable with regard to human achievement.

If I were blains trainer, I would recommend that he become a real athelete, run triathlons frequently and develop his anatomy towards a tuned apnea record, otherwise spend more time on a better stunt. I see record breaking Apneists as specialists in a discipline rather than one trick wonders who just so happen to hold their breaths for a long time. It takes real dedicated training to even get close to that.

I am mostly a recreational freediver spearfisherman, and even what I do is apples to the Oranges of performance apnea!
I applaud the performance and capacity of the worlds best and most dedicated apnea participants, but spearfishing for 5 hours at a time is still different enough.

best of luck to all your endeavors under and above the apnea world.

TBGSUB.
once again apples and oranges

[trux]

tbgsub, I do not think that anyone here on DB ever compared Blaine to freedivers. I would not mind doing it despite the show around it, but I was disgusted by the unfairness of his record announcement - he pretended beating the world record (I believe it was 8:58 in that time), while refusing making it under AIDA rules - hence he should better compare with unofficial records (there were already unofficial performances over 10 minutes in that time). But not only that. Much worse was that he breathed pure oxygen (or enriched air) before the record attempt - you simply cannot spend a week in 3m of water (he spent most of the time sitting or laying on the bottom) without desaturating the nitrogen with oxygen before surfacing. The result also clearly confirmed it - the convulsions he had were not a plain samba but likely a consequence of the previous breathing of oxygen. Eric Fattah analyzed it nicely in the old thread about the stunt.

[Stephan Whelan]

When it comes to David Blaine we should all always remember that he is a TV personality that does stunts. It is all very well scripted and the outcome is known before he ever steps into his current stunt.

He puts on an amazing show but don't believe everything you see on TV.

[trux]

Originally Posted by Stephan Whelan

When it comes to David Blaine we should all always remember that he is a TV personality that does stunts. It is all very well scripted and the outcome is known before he ever steps into his current stunt.

He puts on an amazing show but don't believe everything you see on TV.

I have no problems with that. I have no problems with illusionists either. I have though problems with shameless liars, and Blaine is one. When he tells he is going to beat a freediving world record and going to make the longest breath-hold any human ever did, then those are three lies and no illusions - first, he was not going to make a world record, since he did not respect the rules under which the other were done; second he was not going to make the longest breath-hold (those were a full minute longer than the official record and his planned stunt), and third he was doing it under oxygen. Those are no illusions, those are outright lies.

Otherwise I do not agree with you - everything what is on TV is true. It's magic. Even Blair tells nothing than the purest truth when speaking on TV.

[Spaniard]

I'm not in the slightest bit interested in what Mr Blaine gets up to with reference to holding his breath. It's all a load of chuff. TV magic at its worst. Please don't have live feeds from DB......it'll be like Big Brother!

[apneaboy]

He was good at the street magic that left people wondering how he did it.

The stood on a pole/livinginabubble/gettingcoldinice/buried.... blah blah blah who cares

[apneaboy]

But how did he get that card into that basketball?

[Erik]

I'll dodge the tomatoes and say that I think Blaine is an amazing guy! I love his street tricks especially. So I wish him well in his endeavour
Now Criss Angel... Just too annoying....

[salibandy]

I concur with you!

Originally Posted by Erik

I'll dodge the tomatoes and say that I think Blaine is an amazing guy! I love his street tricks especially. So I wish him well in his endeavour
Now Criss Angel... Just too annoying....

[foxfish]

I agree about that aspect, his early slight of hand shows when he was out walking the streets were just amazing!

[kelp princess]

if nothing else, if you don't find david blaine even slightly amusing, which many people don't, the one positive of this trick is that mandy and kirk will actually get a very public platform (the Oprah Winfrey show!) to hopefully share more responsible and accurate information about freediving and our sport in general.

kp

[Dan Burton]

what a waste of time.
I can't believe Kirk and his team would want to be part of this. This is not how we want to promote the sport, through a stunt man doing silly things.
Get a real job Dave.